Intelligent well completions involve various elements for remote downhole flow control and monitoring. Typically oil, gas and/or water production is monitored and controlled. A completion assembly can also include other components such as screens, packers, liner hangers and blank pipe. A more recent development has been to use expansion technology to expand screens, packers, hangers and other downhole equipment. The expandable completion equipment can be used in open hole, cased and perforated holes or holes with perforated or slotted liners, to name a few examples. Typically the expandable downhole components were run in to the hole on drill pipe along with an anchor and a stroker device to sequentially drive a swage through the tools to be expanded. Even using expansion technology, the completion that then occurred was done in a separate trip. The prior procedure was to run in with the tools to be expanded and position them downhole. When placed into position the tools would be expanded, such as by driving a swage through them. The running string, typically drill pipe, would be pulled out of the hole (POOH) and a second trip on production tubing would follow with the remainder of the completion products. A tubing hanger would then be set and then packers would be set prior to the start of production.
The present invention addresses a one-trip solution to a completion that involves expansion so that the expansion device and the tools to be expanded as well as other tools that are needed for the completion can be delivered at one time. The expansion would take place and the remaining completion equipment set to allow production to then commence.
Others have combined drilling a wellbore on a composite coiled tubing string while transporting expandable casing. After the well is drilled, the bit is dropped and the casing is expanded with an inflatable. This method is illustrated in U.S. 2003/0106688 A1. Another method, shown in U.S. 2003/0221829 A1, delivers a lower and upper completion assembly is connected together and run in the well in a single trip. Thereafter a screen expander is run through tubing on a work string. It could have a shifting tool at its lower end to operate a valve before the expansion starts. Yet others deliver the completion assembly and an inflatable for expansion in two trips, as shown in U.S. 2003/0196820 A1. These techniques stop short of delivery of a completion system along with the expansion assembly in a single trip to allow the completion and expansion operations to take place with a single run. Those skilled in the art will more readily appreciate the scope of the present invention from the claims that appear below as further explained by a discussion of the preferred embodiment including the drawings.